Jamaica: Bob Marley, Chris Blackwell, Ian Fleming, Noël Coward

Monday, 21 July 2025

For some reason I’d never been there, pretty much everywhere else in the Caribbean, Haiti twice, Cuba three times, I’d even spent part of my childhood in the Bahamas, but somehow Jamaica evaded me.

Not any more, I did almost a circuit, arriving in Kingston and departing from Montego Bay. So of course on Day One it was the Bob Marley house and museum, crowded with an awful lot of visitors getting lots of encouragement to sing along with the rastaman. Despite my Marley enthusiasm I was not enamoured.

▲ I did make a brief visit to the Trench Town Culture Yard, another Bob Marley statue there.

▲ Better than either Bob Marley experience is the wonderful street art along Water Lane and adjacent streets in Downtown Kingston.

◄ In the same downtown area the National Gallery is also worth a visit, it features some Jamaican history, interesting temporary exhibits (An Art of Reggae exhibition when I visited), and assorted important Jamaican artists like Edna Manley, married to Norman Manley, the first and only Premier of Jamaica, she’s noted for her sculptures including, near the gallery and right on the waterfront her Negro Aroused statue, great title.

▲ Back from the coastal Downtown Kingston area in Uptown Kingston is Devon House, the fine residence of George Stieibel , Jamaica’s first black millionaire. There’s a great tale that the circuitous Lady Musgrave Road was routed that way so the wife of Jamaica’s British governor wouldn’t have to drive past an uppity black man’s home on her way to King’s House. The park lands around the house are a popular picnic area for Kingstonians, many of them joining the I-Scream queue for a Devon ice cream.

▲ Port Royal

From Kingston I also travelled out along the long spit of land that forms Kingston Harbour, passes the Kingston Airport and terminates at Port Royal where Fort Charles has many interesting displays. I particularly liked the ornate gravestone of Lewes Galady outside St Peter’s Church who ‘was swallowed up in the Great Earth-Quake in the Year 1692. By the Providence of God was by another Shock thrown into the Sea & Miraculously saved by swimming until a Boat took him up. He Lived Many Years after in great Reputation Beloved by all that knew him and much Lamented at his Death.’

I left Kingston to make the short (horizontal) but steep (vertical) climb to Strawberry Hill in Irish Town in the Blue Mountains. I kept thinking of Indian hill stations, a British colonial-era escape from the heat of the capital, except it’s a remarkably short distance to travel to reach the hills in Jamaica. Once you get up there you can investigate Jamaica’s coffee culture or walk into the hills, even to Blue Mountain Peak, at 2256metres (7402feet) the highest point on the island.

◄ Kelvin, my Blue Mountains walking guide

Strawberry Hill is one of the creations of Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records and best known for discovering and promoting Bob Marley and reggae although in fact he’s got lots more – U2, Steve Winwood, Melissa Etheridge, for starters – on his rock scorecard. His mother had quite a scorecard as well, muse and mistress to Ian Fleming, but only muse to Noel Coward (well he was gay).

▲ The Stawberry Hill rooms have names rather than numbers and in appropriate reggae fashion my room was Gong.

Next stop Ian Fleming’s GoldenEye at Orcabessa on the north coast where Fleming wrote his James Bond 007 novels although turning a writer’s retreat into a flash resort is again down to Chris Blackwell.

▲ The best jerk chicken on my Jamaica trip was this sandwich on the beach at GoldenEye. Jerk chicken (or other jerk recipes, I had very good jerk fish) is all about spicy hot. The local spices start with scotch bonnet pepper and may also include allspice, ginger, garlic and thyme.

Only 10km east of GoldenEye – and steeply uphill – Is another artistic retreat, Noël Coward’s Firefly. Blanche Blackwell’s role here is she sold him the property in 1955. Ian Fleming died young, too much hard drinking did him in at 56 years of age, but what amazes me about Mr Coward is how young he started, he was turning out the hits when he was in his early 20s and kept on going right until his death – in 1973, aged 73 – at Firefly.

▲ Enjoying the view with Noël Coward

The property is utterly derelict, you can peer through the glass into the living room and imagine that someone famous is paying a visit, or into his studio, the easel is still there, but there’s no pink jeep in the garage. No matter because Firefly is all about position position position and there’s no better place to appreciate that than standing beside Noël Coward’s seated statue and gazing out on what must be one of the finest views in the Caribbean. Visitors to Firefly included the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, Laurence Olivier, Sophia Loren, Marlene Dietrich, Elizabeth Taylor, Alec Guinness, Peter O’Toole, Richard Burton, and neighbours Errol Flynn, Ruth Bryan Owen and Ian Fleming. Well there’s a checklist. Noël Coward is a permanent resident, he’s buried here.

Firefly was absolutely my Jamaican highlight so it’s amusing that I wouldn’t have got there if I hadn’t ignored GoldenEye’s front desk advice. When I enquired about a visit I was firmly told the house was closed. OK, but could I just go up there and enjoy the view I asked? No, the property is totally closed off and inaccessible. Or so I was told. Fortunately I ignored them.

▲Descending through Fern Gully into Ocho Rios

Next stop Ocho Rios where the town didn’t do anything for me. Fern Gully, the five-km entry into the town is a nice introduction from the south coast. I’ve done enough waterfalls, Dunn’s Falls may be Jamaica’s biggest tourist attraction but I didn’t need to be added to the statistic.

▲ Jamaica Inn

On the other hand Jamaica inn, where I stayed just outside the town, accommodation-wise was a delight. It’s charmingly and ridiculously old fashioned, like a ‘50s British-Caribbean fantasy, there’s even a croquet green. Clearly it must work, an American couple I chatted with at the bar one evening had been coming back for 20 years. And the young vocalist concluding her session at dinner with My Boy Lollipop (yes it’s a Chris Blackwell hit) one night was the final icing on the cake.

▲ Court House, Falmouth

Between Ocho Rios and Montego Bay, Falmouth is noted for its Georgian buildings and the addition of a cruise ship port able to handle mega-vessels was supposed to fund the renovation of the town and its fine architecture. Well add Falmouth to the list of places where trickle down or in this case trickle-out-of-the-cruise-ship-terminal simply hasn’t happened. The fine, but crumbling, buildings are still crumbling.

▲ He got below that limbo pole level with no trouble. Then he got below the next level down. Then he did it again with the limbo pole on fire! Now there’s an incentive to limbo lower. This was dinner time entertainment at the Round Hill Hotel outside Montego Bay on my last night in Jamaica. The hotel was fine, the beach beautiful, the food excellent, the Red Stripe beer well chilled as ever, but I’ve got to hand it to Round Hill for my checkout. Can I get a late checkout I asked, my flight wasn’t departing until 930pm. ‘Sure, no problem,’ I stayed until after 6pm.

◄ Route Taxis

You flag it down, jump in and with luck (I was generally lucky) you won’t be the fourth person in the back seat. For the shorter trips I was doing the fare never seemed to be more than 250 JMD (Jamaican dollars) (about US$1.50) and more than once when I overpaid I’d be given 50 JMD (30 cents US) back. You need to know where you’re going and the larger minibus-size versions all suffer from completely blacked out-windows so you have no idea if it’s already overstuffed or, at a depot, you’re the first on board and have to wait for it to full up. Whatever, Route Taxis were my Jamaican transport of choice and they worked really well.

So Jamaica, I enjoyed it, easy to get around, remarkably friendly people, good food. On the other hand I didn’t become a big fan, I won’t be signing up for multiple return visits like some of the visitors I bumped into. Plus I’m no fan for the big slices of Jamaican tourism, you’re not going to find me in an All Inclusive Resort (sorry Sandals). Or on a cruise ship. I certainly can’t claim this was an economical trip, check those classy places I stayed. Although I certainly saved a few dollars on travel with Route Taxis, despite doing some pricey place-to-place transfers as well. A downside to Jamaica? There are some very tacky towns and the overload of billboards and adverts is exhausting.